It’s the time of Hunter’s Moon—
How seductively it glows;
A raven whispers come out soon,
As a wicked west wind blows.
I can’t resist adventure’s song,
Primal cravings growing bold…
I don’t care if it all goes wrong—
Let the decadence unfold!
~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.
Written for Jim’s Thursday Inspiration with a bonus track from Van Morrison.
I would be most pleased and honored if you could put on your traveling pants today and visit my friend Jeff’s blog, where he features my new poem “The Butterfly Poet.” This piece was inspired by a selection from Jeff’s wonderful poetry book Nature Speaks of Love and Sorrow.
Next on the travel agenda is a trip over to Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie, where I am continuing the Dream Interpretation series. Today’s post discusses the various possible meanings of driving dreams.
Bon voyage, wear plenty of sunscreen, and don’t forget to stay hydrated!
~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.
*Title is from the cute book The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.
I’m not a fan of lumping,
Illustrated by the trend
Of dividing people into groups,
As a means to an end.
We seek to ever simplify
This crazy world of ours,
But we’re much more complicated
Than bumblebees or flowers.
Dumb, smart, right, left…
Lumping fosters hate,
But I see it all the time
From those who seek “debate.”
What about good v evil?
Well, most humans are a mix
And can’t be neatly labeled
By a rhetorician’s tricks.
Lumpy mashed potatoes?
Everyone says ewwww!
So quit sorting us like that
To make life easier for you.
Embrace the vast complexity
Of the wondrous human mind;
Stop stuffing us into boxes—
Be tolerant and kind!*
~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.
Written for Fandango’s Provocative Question and dVerse’s Poetry Challenge.
*With some exceptions.
She was confused when she opened the letter addressed to her recently deceased father. Apparently, he’d been served with a lawsuit by the board of directors of the necromancy club for not being a real wizard and the judge had ruled in their favor. Her father had been banned from the club!
Vanessa had noticed her father faltering at times lately and using a few illusions to make up for it, but she’d attributed that to his ongoing health issues, along with grief over her mother’s desertion, both of which had sadly caused his early death at the age of 54. Even wizards weren’t immune from heart disease and heartbreak. But surely most of his show had been real. Hadn’t it?
Vanessa ran to her father’s study, breaking open the locked door with a mental image of a bull, and began rummaging through his desk. She picked up his favorite fountain pen and received a clear picture of him in pain, clutching his chest and gazing at a photo of her mother. She flung down the pen as if it were a serpent and resumed her task. Aha! Here was the original lawsuit, accompanied by a thick ream of exhibits, documenting instances of what they called “malicious and fraudulent deception to fool the audience and steal glory from real magicians.”
Tears trickled from her eyes as she collapsed into her father’s worn chair. Surely, the board was wrong! They’d accused him of having no magic whatsoever, and that simply could not be true. Vanessa recalled her mother saying the same thing when she’d left them to go live with the coven last year, and her father had explained that she was just angry because he hadn’t become as successful as they’d planned. But what if her mother had been right?
I don’t want to spend the rest of my life with muggles! You’ve lost your magic! Vanessa remembered the hateful words her mother had spewed the night she ran off, while her father had stood there silently. Until today, Vanessa hadn’t considered that there was no response. She recalled the times when she wondered why her father was using marked cards and hoaxes instead of spells, and now she realized the magic had disappeared for him. But her mother had been wrong about one thing: Vanessa was no muggle.
She began to devise a plan to get even with her mother, the coven, and the nasty board of directors. She’d devise particularly cruel revenge for every necromancer whose name appeared on that complaint. And the judge! It would all be done in secret, however, for Vanessa intended to use ancient wizadry, not parlor tricks, in order to inflict the most misery upon the people who had ruined her father’s life. Magic was her legacy, as well as her curse, and she hadn’t called upon it much until now. They would all be sorry!
But she didn’t dare tell them the truth.
~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.
Written for Fandango’s Story Starter 65, Emma’s Title Challenge, and Chelle’s Last Sentence.
Serpents cloud the sky
Strike at unfaithful lovers
Thunderstorm justice
~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.
Haiku written for Moonwashed Musings (thunderstorm).
“If we own the story then we can write the ending.” ~ Brene Brown
~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.
The above is a Sprinkles flash flavor cupcake ~ salted chocolate caramel. It’s part of their astrology series and this one is for Libras, though I don’t discriminate by star sign and will nom up any of them that look good. I wasn’t sure about this one though, as I’m not the biggest chocolate fan. I KNOW, RIGHT?! But it’s true. Most of the time, I prefer other flavors. Yet the salted caramel cake was so unbearably tempting, so I gave in, as you do. I’ve had a salted caramel cupcake from Sprinkles previously, but I don’t recall the cake being quite this delicious, so fluffy and moist and caramelly. The frosting was excellent too, due to its luscious, creamy dark chocolate goodness, with a teensy bit of salt sprinkled on for extra noms. However, I must be honest in my reviews: I was disappointed in the blob in the middle. Mine didn’t look anything like the image above and wasn’t the least bit “silky.” It was a lump of horribly bitter chocolate that added nothing good to the cake or the frosting. This would have been an excellent treat otherwise.
Zomg! Sprinkles pumpkin spice latte zooms right to the top of my cupcake faves. I saved this treat for breakfast, so it was a tiny bit stale, a condition I happen to enjoy in cake. As soon as I opened the box, the wonderful aroma of coffee wafted out because that’s what the frosting is made of. Yum! I miss coffee so much. The cake was loaded with pumpkin flavor, and I even enjoyed the fluffy marshmallow filling (there wasn’t a ton of it, which was a good thing as it would have displaced more cake). The frosting though was completely out of this world on the deliciousness scale. Fab!!!
Onward to winter cupcake concoctions!
~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.
He’s flashy and loud
Brings all the drama to town
He does not strike twice
Or so they say but still I
Wait outside with copper wire
~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.
Tanka written for Tanka Tuesday (the nature of lightning).
Dr. Tanya continues her #5Things series by asking for our most unputdownable books. My tastes have changed in this regard. When I was younger, I found it hard to put down a compelling romance novel, but these days I’m more inclined to get totally absorbed in a mystery/suspense type book.
1. The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen Woodiwiss. It wouldn’t be fair not to mention that I stayed up all night when I was 14 to finish this romance. Nowadays it makes me cringe though due to its rapey nature.
2. Faking It by Jennifer Crusie. Welcome to Temptation was the first Crusie romance I read, and it motivated me to begin writing my own, but Faking It remains my favorite of hers.
3. South on Highland by Liana Maeby held my attention from start to finish. I have a review of it here.
4. The Arrangement by Kiersten Modglin. This is a crazy, twisty suspense novel that grabbed me from page one.
5. Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. Wow, what a fabulous sci-fi novel. Science fiction isn’t my go-to genre, but when it’s good, it’s really good!
Here’s the thing though. These grabby, fun books I gulp down like mental candy aren’t necessarily my favorite reads. I prefer more philosophical writing, where I read at a slower pace to absorb ideas, and even put down the book for a while to ponder the meaning of life or whatever. But sometimes I just want candy.
~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.
Tagged candy, fiction, mystery/suspense, philosophy, reviews, romance novels, science fiction
The whisper of a cool breeze reminds me that sultry summer dreams are coming to an end. I welcome brown sugar oatmeal, crisp apple days, and cozy blanket snuggles. My cup overflows with the pumpkin spice of life.
Autumnal palette
Orange amber magenta
Brightens longer nights
~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.
Haibun written for dVerse Poets September Song.
 | messymimi's meanderi… on Quicksand [fffc] |
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| Paula Light on September’s Song |
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Light Motifs II 